Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Facebook's Anonymous Login: A Trust-Building Endeavor

When it comes to the many reasons why someone may not care for Facebook, one of the most common is the idea of shared data. After all, no one wants to give out information to a company that they don’t know and even fewer want said information used in a way that they can hamper their online experience. To these individuals, a method of logging into Facebook without sharing those kinds of details is an ideal concept on paper.

It seems like this particular concept will soon be brought into effect. This past Wednesday, Facebook announced that it would be incorporating an anonymous login feature that users can implement without having to share their identities. Individuals can sign into apps and their personal data will not be collected. What this means is that anything from personal interests to job history will be kept as secretive as possible, provided this feature is implemented.

Without question, this is an interesting move to make, especially since it seems like Facebook has been driven to tailor user experiences based on what they like. However, this isn’t always accurate; certain ads may come up that they have no interest in at all. It can be argued that it’s easy enough to click away from said ads but sometimes they can come across as too intrusive. As a result, it’s easy for users to lose interest in Facebook, especially if it doesn’t have the interests of its users in mind.

However, it appears as though this is a method meant to build a sense of comfort between Facebook and its users. At the annual F8 developers conference, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that, “By giving people more power and control, they're going to trust more apps,” How many times have you logged onto a site and, instead of signing up for an account through typical means, you were given the option of logging in through your Facebook account instead?

The method in question saves time, without question, but it also requires access to your information on Facebook, your friends list and interests included. It’s easy to understand why there would be those who would instead create a separate account. Why give your most important details to a site you know little about? Of course, whether or not a site is deemed worthy of sharing such details with is a subjective talking point.

The fact that this gives more Facebook users control of their social media endeavors is a positive, without question, and online marketing companies across the board understand just how important this is. We live in a world where people desire as much freedom as possible in regards to networking and websites should be tailored with this idea in mind. A user shouldn’t feel as though he or she is being limited by a global entity. The entity in question should make it a point to tell users, “This is your platform, so do with it as you like.”